It was a busy StitchMaynia and a busy month of celebrating our graduate! In between, I finished a quilt and fully finished four stitching projects.
The month started with a lovely dinner to celebrate my son's achievement of graduating in the top 30 in his class (almost 700 in his graduating class!) - we enjoyed a chance to meet his favorite teacher, see several parents we've known over the years, and celebrate his accomplishment.
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Top 30 Dinner |
And ended with his graduation - we had a great night seeing him walk across the stage and get his hard-earned diploma.
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Class of 2025 |
In between graduation, work dinners, a trip to see cousins, and several late nights at work, I managed to get in at least a few stitches each night during the month of May. I worked on all five of my WIPs (works in progress) and started five new projects, which is the approach I've had for several years. Some projects didn't get all that many stitches over three nights, but I am glad to make any progress I can.
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Collage of 9 stitching projects I worked on during the month of May |
I did finish one project in my 3-day rotation and it's a cute one. I picked this up at Market this year and I was excited to start it. I know how I will fully finish it too and hope to have it done well ahead of Halloween this year.
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Cat and Bones by Bent Creek Stitched with mostly called for threads on a mystery scrap of linen |
On the quilting side, I met my goals for the month. The first one was to select fabrics for a new quilt. I decided to make it Halloween themed and thought I'd go with a black and orange theme, but when I started pulling fabrics, I found more browns than blacks and maybe that will make it a little more versatile to use all fall? I got them pressed after this picture and found that one of them didn't have a big enough piece, so I've done one change, but am looking forward to getting this quilt underway.

My second quilting goal for the month was not technically quilting, but did use fabric. I wanted to do some cross-stitch fully finishing with fabric. I had a couple projects specifically in mind and a couple others that jumped to the top of the list. My four finishes for May are:
1. Surrounded by Joy - a free pattern by Bent Creek. I used a scrap of fabric to make this into a pillow and it had been sitting on my cutting table since just after I finished it earlier this year. I had the perfect velvet ribbon to make it an ornament pillow.
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Surrounded by Joy |
2. The next finish was also one that has been on my cutting table for a while and is also a Bent Creek pattern! I knew that I wanted to finish this one as an ornament, but didn't want it to be too thick, so I backed it with scrapbook paper and did my first ruched ribbon edging. It took a while and then I find of smashed it when I glued the paper to the back. Even so, I think it turned out okay. The ribbon came from a Lady Dot Creates scrap bag. Another ornament done!
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Woodland Peace by Bent Creek Stitched with kit linen and thread |
3. This one has been in progress for a while. I sewed the cylinder for this drum probably last fall and it sat and sat. I finally cut the circles to be able to finish it in a drum. I really enjoyed finding red fabric that matched and was able to fussy cut the top. This is my first drum and I really enjoyed making it - not a hard FFO, but one that took some time to assemble. I am really happy to have this one finished and ready for this year's tree.
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Yuletide Revels (top third of the pattern) by Joan Elliott |
4. Next up was a finish from last month. I knew all along that I'd FFO this as a flat fold and while I was working on FFOs, I found the right fabric for this one and decided to get it done. The fabric in the FFO is a blue/pink floral print that goes really well with the colors in the stitched piece. I edged it with chenille that I had in my stash and I think the color works well. I plan to have this one in my room so I see it every day.
In addition to some time FFO'ing, I also got my Quarter Log Cabin bound this month - might have finished it on the 31st, but that still counts! I love the bright colors in this quilt made from a jelly roll I've had in my stash for close to 20 years.

It was a busy month but a great one. I am happy that I managed to find some time to stitch, quilt and FFO between all that was going on.
Here are the stats for the month:
Fabric added this month: 0 yards
Fabric used this month: 1/2 yard (for FFOs)
Fabric added year to date: 0 yards
Fabric used year to date: 6 1/8 yards
Net fabric used: 6 1/8 yards
31/31 days with crafting/stitching time = 100%
Project completion tracking:
Stitching projects: 1 finish, 4 FFOs = 38 waiting to be fully finished
Quilting projects: 0 new starts (I won't count my new project as a start until I cut into the fabric), 1 finish = 6 projects waiting to be fully finished
Thanks for stopping by as always and hope you had a crafty May and are having a great June so far.
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